The Wizard of Oz Cats (b.27-28 February 2010)

The lovely Gemma, who started this whole character cat thang off with her request for Pirate and Ninja Cats, got in touch with me once more in January asking if I could make up four Wizard of Oz Cats, as this was her favourite film. And so the journey to creating Catothy Gale, Tin Cat, Scarekitty and Cat-ardly Lion was begun!

I started with Tin Cat, making him out of silver clay. I referred to stills from the original film to get the general ideal - the most obvious features of Tin Man were his raised collar, and the funnel on his head. I added rivets to the body by rolling tiny dots of silver clay and applying them to thin strips of clay.

The Scare-Cat was next, and I made him up in a number of different layers. Because he had brown trousers, I made up a body of brown clay. Next I added a green tunic which sits over the trousers, and then I finished off the look by adding a sheet of clay over the head - those aficionados of the film will be aware that the Scarecrow had a bag over his head, tied at the neck with string. So I extruded some rope-coloured clay and twisted two strands together to create the rope, which I then placed around the neck, the waist and around his floppy brown hat.

Dorothy Cat came next - she was similar in some respects to Princess Leia Cat in that I used a flesh-coloured clay for the body, and then 'dressed' her with a blue pinafore dress. Her ruby slippers were made from metallic red clay shaped to a point. I made the hair from extruded clay which I then loosely gathered into sections to create a more realistic style. Wee Toto is only 2cm high and made from black clay - next time I'll put him in a basket!

Last, but certainly not least, came the Cowardly Lion. It seemed a bit daft to make up a lion to look like a cat, and so I decided to use my existing Lion design, with a few modications of course!

The most important change was giving the Cowardly Lion some paws so that he could hold his tail in a rather cowardly way. I also made his mane more curly, as the Cowardly Lion in the film had definite ringlets (which I always thought was a little bit suspect). He also had a red bow in his hair (which did nothing to alter my opinion), and a couple of well-placed flicks of the scalpel gave a rather scared expression to his face.

I so enjoyed making up these cats, I can't wait to start making up some more - and I particularly enjoy making up character sets, like these ones, and the Star Wars Cats. I have plans to make Dr Who Cats (with Tom Baker (of course) as the Doctor, K-9 and a Dalek Cat) and Robin Hood Cats (with Robin Hood, Maid Marian and Friar Tuck). And that's not to mention the Cat-ivity Scene I plan to make up closer to Christmas! Oh, so many ideas, so little time - and once again, many thanks to Gemma, who makes beautiful jewellery under the name of Cosmiceden, for setting my feet upon this path.

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